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Ever since the Ringside Politics program started 22 years ago, we have enjoyed an annual tradition. Every year, during Thanksgiving week, we announce our Turkey of the Year winner. Our previous award recipients have included both celebrities and politicians, as well as Republicans and Democrats.

Our 2020 winner was former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He was chosen for combining sanctimonious media performances with shady ethical conduct and potentially criminal behavior involving numerous female victims. Eventually, his unacceptable activity involving these women contributed to his forced resignation.

Like Andrew Cuomo our 2021 award winner is a real turkey in every respect. As usual, this year, we allowed our fantastic audience members to offer their nominations. While many people were nominated, there was one overwhelming favorite for 2021 Ringside Politics Turkey of the Year, President Joe Biden.

In the 2020 campaign, candidate Joe Biden pledged to govern as a moderate president who would end extremist policies. He also promised to “heal” America and bring people together. In fact, the exact opposite has occurred. As president, Biden has pursued an extreme left-wing agenda that has divided the country.

Biden has performed so miserably as president that his latest approval rating is only 36 percent. It has been steadily dropping for the last several months as problems have been mounting and Biden has been preoccupied with his extreme agenda. Clearly, the American people are suffering from the impact of his policies.

Of course, Biden has no mandate for his progressive policies. He defeated President Donald Trump in a disputed election. Biden’s Democrat Party has an extremely thin majority in Congress, while Republicans control more governorships and state legislative bodies.

In the 2020 election, Joe Biden and the Democrat Party did not win an overwhelming victory. It was nothing like the triumphs of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in the election of 1932 or President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) in the 1964 election.

Those presidents won landslides and had popular support for massive expansions of government. Thus, FDR launched the “New Deal” programs and LBJ fulfilled his vision of a “Great Society.” At those times in American history, voters supported a much larger role for government.

Today, despite Biden’s embrace of socialism, America is a center-right nation ideologically. If the midterm elections were held now, the Republicans would sweep to power in Congress because of the failure of the Democrats and President Biden.

For example, Biden inherited a stable southern border with a low rate of illegal immigration. By ending construction of the border wall, reinstituting the “catch and release” policy and terminating President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” program, the situation has deteriorated significantly.

In 2021, over two million individuals from every continent of the world will illegally enter the country at our southern border. These individuals are not being evaluated for COVID-19 or vaccinated, even though Americans are facing such mandates. The Biden administration is also sending these people to areas all over the country, without the support or knowledge of local communities.

Sadly, our cities are under siege. The Biden administration has shown extraordinarily little assistance for local police officers. With vaccine mandates now leading to more officers leaving departments across the country, it is no surprise that crime is escalating in American cities. With the addition of several million new residents from foreign countries, crime will surely increase even more in 2022.

Adding to this problem are over 100,000 immigrants from Afghanistan. Many of these individuals have not been properly vetted and have few, if any, applicable job skills to contribute to our economy. It is another reminder of the president’s embarrassing withdrawal of American military forces from Afghanistan.

This debacle resulted in the needless death of 13 brave American military service members and the gift of $85 billion in military hardware to the Taliban, the terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan. Despite promising never to leave Americans behind in Afghanistan, Biden abandoned possibly thousands of our citizens to the mercy of barbaric terrorists. Their eventual fate is unknown and seems to be of little concern to Biden and his pathetic administration.

Biden’s biggest political headache is the poor economy. Upon taking office, he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline and placed a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in federal territory. He also suspended all drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ended fossil fuel subsidies and announced the entire federal government vehicle fleet will be converted to electric.

In effect, he declared war on the fossil fuel industry. The result is that gasoline prices have skyrocketed over $1.00 per gallon in the last year. In response, the president focuses on “green energy.” In the recently passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, Democrats inserted a multitude of “green energy” initiatives.

These programs are consistent with a president who is fixated on “climate change.” He reinserted the country in the Paris Climate Accords and just returned from a worldwide conference on the issue in Scotland.

However, as Biden and Democrats are pushing “climate change” programs to impact the country in future decades, Americans are dealing with runaway inflation today. The personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) has increased 5.77 percent since the start of the Biden presidency, the highest level in almost 40 years.

Soaring inflation has resulted in a 10-year low in consumer confidence, according to a respected study. In response, Biden and Democrats want to add to their $3.1 trillion in new programs by passing the gargantuan “Build Back Better” legislation, which will only increase inflation and the national debt, while reducing the value of our currency.

There is a disconnect between the American people and President Joe Biden. While he focuses on his agenda, Americans are facing extreme economic hardship.

Unfortunately, our president is mentally incompetent and unable to lead our nation during these grim times. While he is not an effective president, he most certainly is the right choice to be Ringside Politics Turkey of the Year.

Jeff Crouere is the host of “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 10 p.m. Sunday on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 a.m. till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. He is the political analyst for WGNO-TV ABC 26 and a columnist for selected publications. For more information, visit his web site at RingsidePolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.